Société

Healing The Wounds Of Insecurity

The putting in place of an emergency programme remains the most practical panacea for internally displaced children.

More than 30,000 families in the Far North Region alone are leaking their wounds from the effect of insecurity perpetrated by the Boko Haram insurgency. Several schools closed down sending children into the wilderness. Those who could afford the means necessary and they were few of such, left the affected areas and registered their kids in far off schools. The impact has been quite devastating for families in the region. Some families, especially those with little or no means were said to have completely withdrawn their children from school.

The Adamawa and the East regions were equally affected by insecurity coming especially from the effect of the conflict in neighbouring Central African Republic. The case in these two regions particularly concerned families coming in from the Central African Republic. The number of internally displaced might have been a bit minimal here but the influx of foreigners perturbed the education cycle in the two regions.

Working in collaboration with the UN High Commission for Refugees and other international partners, government got down to work setting objectives around identifying internally displaced people with precision in order to better tailor its actions. These actions were necessary especially to pre-empt any opportunistic acts. It is within this framework that the three affected regions of the Far North, Adamawa and East received particular attention from government’s emergency programme.

According to the Minister of Basic Education, Yousouf Adidja Alim, actions taken so far amounts to FCFA 3.7 billion. These include the construction of 208 classrooms, 87 latrines and 58 wells. In the same light, 6,240 desks have been fabricated as well as 208 offices for teachers. Apart from this, government has equally disbursed money within this programme for the payment of special encouragement prices to teachers, examination fees for displaced children and stipends to teachers.

More English teachers have been recruited, the minimum packet subvention disbursed to Head teachers through municipal councils within the framework of decentralisation, and six new schools created in the Minawao refugee camp, three nursery and three primary. Besides the material supplies, some education staff have been trained on education in emergency situations, how best to manage children in crisis situation as well as ensure their psychological and social integration.

The reopening of some of the deserted schools in the Fra North Region and the assurances of the Far North Governor, Midjiyawa Bakari on tightened security is sure hope rekindling and tells of a progressive return to normalcy.